Quote from one of my lecturers

Now, I know you guys know that anaecdotes, plural anaecdotes, isn't evidence. But this is that way I like to think about it. We know that anaecdotes is shitty evidence, right? So let's imagine that one anaecdote is equivalent to poop. If you got one poo and put it on a pile, and got another poo and put it in a pile, and make a giant pile of poo over two hundred years, it doesn't turn into gold, does it? Still a pile of shit."

HAHAHAHAHA

On the topic of The Office, I was watching youtube clips and stumbled across this.

It's hilarious. I also showed this to Jacky, he thought it was pretty funny too :)

Also, Jacky is at a point where he is trying to surprise me with a proposal. It's pretty funny and oh so cute. Because even though he tries to keep things secret, he usually ends up telling me anyway because of how happy or proud he is of his plans he is.

(And I'm one of those terrible people who love surprises but I nag and nag going "What is it? What is it?" even though I don't really want to know; & people usually end up cracking under the pressure)

But, currently I have no idea except that he's trying to plan lots of dates to throw me off the scent. But because I know him and how he acts, I'm pretty sure I'll see it coming. But he's so adorable anyway.

♥♥♥

(Also, I know that I usually never write anything personal here but well I don't mind because I'm pretty sure no one reads this anymore anyway.)

PB&J

So, I used to watch The Office and loved it but I ended up giving up halfway through season 6 and haven't watched since.
But I spent the past two days reliving Jim and Pam from The Office, re-watching the early episodes skipping all the other parts except Jim, Pam & Dwight (mainly just skipping the Michael Scott bits, because though I know he's the star of the show for 8 seasons, he is way too awkward for me and sometimes makes me uncomfortable watching him; pretty much one of the reasons why I ended up stopping).

But ahhh, I'm totally fangirl-ing again about Jim and Pam. I just rewatched their wedding episode, and I conclude its definitely my favourite episode ever. Well, not specifically the whole episode but when Pam freaked out about the wedding after she ripped her veil from that point to the end, I absolutely loved it. It was just so cute that Jim and Pam got married at the waterfall by themselves without all the drama, and all that mattered was just them ♥

Also, re-watching random season 1, 2 & 3 episodes just for the Jim and Pam moments. I love the way he looks at her. He's sooooo cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute. And they're so cuuute together; especially when they pull pranks on Dwight. (That said, I can't complain. My boyfriend is the best and I know he absolutely loves me as do I him. And I know that sometimes he looks at me like Jim looks at Pam. ♥ )
Now, I'm tempted to catch up and finish this final season just for Pam and Jam; but I'll probably skip all the Michael Scott bits. Maybe. (after I finish exams).

Also, side note. Is there a Office fan that is not a Jim and Pam shipper? Seriously? I really feel like there wouldn't be or it would be so amazingly rare.

Elizabeth

I just watched the movie Elizabeth (1998).

I loved it, it was rather captivating and its one of those movies that makes you want to wiki about the history and what actually happened. Its also kind of funny because Wikipedia lists Robert Dudley as Elizabeth's 'favourite', but that sounds pretty weird, childish even.

I did love the sets of the movie, the way it was shot and the dresses. And the men look so funny in their pantaloons! Especially when they are trying to look tough or be tough, but they look like this: (I tried to look for a better shot that was in the movie but this will do)

I did love the way to story was told and progressed, I was a bit puzzled though about Geoffrey Rush's character because they never really explained his character or his back story except that he was implemented to protect the queen. Also, I didn't get the shaving of her hair at the end, especially because the next shot she has hair.

But yes, loved the movie, that has a good story which captivates til the end.

Rating: 8/10. Cate Blanchett is amazing.

Dorian Gray

I just watched the movie Dorian Gray (2009), based on Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. I have always been meaning to read this book. I have started it once but have never gotten around to finishing it. It just sits on my shelf as we speak.

But here's what I thought of the movie.

I know that the movie got really low ratings but I didn't think it was that terrible. The movie started off really well actually, I thought it was quite captivating at first and illustrated the slow corruption of Dorian Gray, the change in person from his innocence to a corrupted self. I thought they showed this well, however perhaps the change in person happened a little bit too suddenly, but oh well I guess its because it was a movie. Also, Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray is very very good looking. And so I thought the movie had so much potential but the second half of the movie just didn't work. It just became a little bit ridiculous and overdramatic, especially the ending. At least I did finish it though, unlike Perfume. So there's a plus. 


Rating: I think I give it a 6.5/10 because the second half of the film and the ending, if it were just the first half or the movie continued with a tone similar to the first half I'd give it a 7.5. 

Tangled

I LOVED IT! It was hilarious and oh-so cute! And also Zachary Levi as Eugene is pretty funny, because everytime I hear his voice I just think that its Chuck Bartowski.

I can't do that much of a review, because I can't really mention actors or anything. But everything about it was great, I particularly loved the horse and the chameleon.

One of the best moments was when Eugene/Flynn Ryder tries to 'seduce' Rapunzel using his 'smoulder'.

Rating: 9/10 LOVED IT, LOVED IT, LOVED IT. 


And also the mini sequel Tangled ever after is also hilarious.

Priest: May I have the rings?
Rapunzel: (gasps)
Queen: That was were my grandmother's wedding rings!
Guard: The kingdom is lost!
(Explosion and destruction of the whole castle)

HAHAHA.

Disney classics vs. modern

So the past two days I've been watching a few of the Disney animated movies that I have not watched or have forgotten about, more precisely the Disney Princess movies. The classics: Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontas and Little Mermaid. And the modern Rapunzel story, Tangled. I'll do a separate post about what I thought about Tangled.

But its pretty funny comparing the classic movies made before the 2000s, and a modern redone fairytale made in the 2000s.

For one thing, the idea of reaching I guess womanhood and when its acceptable to find your prince in the old classics is when the princesses reach 16 years old. Whereas in the modern movie, it is when Rapunzel turns 18 years old then she goes out and falls in love.

Also, in the old movies I find that the princes tend to fall in love with singing voices. In Sleeping Beauty, Prince Philip falls in love with Aurora's voice (in a way) and also in The Little Mermaid Prince Eric falls in love with  Ariel's voice. And in the classics, they fall in love in like two seconds. At least in the modern version, it takes slightly longer.

There's a bit of a progression.

The Sleeping Beauty released in 1959, falls in love the quickest after they sing 'Once Upon a Dream' together, they're in love.

The Little Mermaid released in 1989, well the prince as I mentioned fell in love with her voice, Ariel falls in love with him after spying on him for a bit and rescuing him. And they fall in love a bit more on the boat ride.

In Pocahontas released in 1995, she fell in love with John Smith after a few meetings and chatting to each other. 

And in Tangled released in 2010, Rapunzel and Eugene fall in love after a day's adventure and a romantic boat ride. 

I like that as time goes on, Disney's realising how unrealistic it is for people to fall in love at first sight (or song) or after talking to the people for a few minutes. And so as time has gone one the falling in love bit keeps getting long to make it seem more realistic I guess. 

Also re-watching Pocahontas, it definitely reminded me of Avatar and I know people have said it before, and I had known it, but it is exactly the same just with more fancy graphics. Even the same guy in each movie dies.

Another thing, why do the female villains have to be so vain? eg. Snow White, Tangled. I'm pretty sure the chase for beauty is not the only drive for people to be evil.

And as much as I love the classics, the modern ones are funnier, which I love. The classics are a bit cheesier. 

But watching Sleeping Beauty for the first time, I loved it. Maleficent is a great villain but I'm confused as to why would she randomly curse a child and why she can turn into a dragon, but anywho. The three good fairies were so cute, though. Especially the end when they keep trying to change the colour of the dress. HAHA.

But either classics or modern, the Disney Princess movies are enjoyable to watch :)

Perfume: the story of a murderer

I just tried to watch it. I got half an hour in and I couldn't persist with it anymore. It was a bit too weird for my liking. So I had to stop, and the movie is way to melodramatic and there a long scenes when he's just smelling things, which is awkward to watch. And its also hard to carry a film when the main character isn't that relatable. In fact, he was damn right weird and creepy. 

An Education

After just watching it, here's what I thought of it.

I liked it, it wasn't fantastic but it was ok. I was a well executed story, but I found myself wanting it to end sooner than it did.

Carey Mulligan was great as a 16-year-old school girl dreaming of the future where she can enjoy music, fine food, culture and arts, as opposed to her studying. She was definitely believable as a girl who thought she knew more than she really did, and was just in fact a naive little girl. It did kind of remind me of what I was like when I was that age.

Peter Sarsgaard as David was great as well. The fact that he absolutely creeped me out even right from the beginning meant he did do a good job as a 30-something con man that tries to seduce a 16 year old girl. But the sheer fact, that I found him so creepy meant that I did find myself waiting for the movie to end sooner than it did. Half way through the movie I found myself checking how long there was left and how long I had to endure a creepy old guy seducing a little girl. The scene that creeped me the most was the one when she tells him she doesn't want to sleep with anyone until she is 17, and he was like ok but we can do romantic stuff right? And then asks to see her breasts. Eeek, creepy!

Honorable mentions: I really liked the ending about how she told her new BOYfriend that she would love to go to Paris, as if she had never been before, that was cute!

Rating:  7.5/10
It previously was a 7, but an extra 0.5 because of Carey Mulligan's performance.

aims

So my aims for this holidays:

- READ A LOT. I have a bunch of books that I have in my possession that I have no yet read, I really think I should. Plus, I want to read the Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones).

I've sort of started this, I'm reading The Great Gatsby at the moment. Though I have read in before, when I was year 12 I never really got it. And then I remember talking to Clara about it that year, and she said that she loved it. Clearly, I'm the less romantic and literary one. So, I decided to finally read it again to really understand what the fuss is about. (This is also sparked by the fact that I can't wait for the movie, though admittedly I never imagined Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, or Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway (I mean, really?) I always imagined Nick being quite young and in his late 20s)

- WATCH MOVIES. So I'm not a fan of watching movies in cinemas, just purely because it costs too much. But during holiday I do tend to watch a lot of movies because I have the luxury of being able to borrow them from libraries for free or rent them cheap. I remember last holidays I ended up watching The Beach and Shutter Island both Leonardo ones I really enjoyed. There were other ones too like The Prestige and others, but I've forgotten which ones now.

I've began this too, starting with Jane Eyre and also to rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy because I've never really seen it properly. I watched the Fellowship of the Ring yesterday, which I liked. I watched it with Jacky, I kept going 'who's that?' 'what's that?' 'where's he from?' but I don't think he minded because he wants me to watch them too.

So here's my list of movies that I want to watch (I'll periodically cross them off as I watch them):

Jane Eyre
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
LOTR: The Two Towers
LOTR: Return of the King
Winter's Bone
Sleepy Hollow
Melancholia
Thor
Wall-E
Sucker Punch
Pan's Labrynith
How to Train Your Dragon
Ratatouille
Tangled
Pocahontas
Sleeping Beauty
The Little Mermaid
The Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles
Girl, Interrupted
The Virgin Suicides
Lost in Translation
An Education
Chocolat
Perfume (didn't finish)
Gladiator
Maria Antoinette
The Chronicles of Narmia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narmia: Prince Caspian
The Chronicles of Narmia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Elizabeth
Dorian Gray
(to add more later.)

- BE A NERD AND STUDY. So I've been told that next year I won't have much time to study for my exams, so I should probably start now.

- PLAN FOR SINGAPORE. So excited! It's going to be FUN! :)

jane eyre

I just watched Jane Eyre, and really quite enjoyed it. It took me back to when I first read it about four years ago.

I enjoyed the way they told the story with the cutbacks to the present and past, and I liked that they did leave all the important scenes in there. Of course they couldn't put everything in there, Charlotte Bronte is quite thorough in explaining her every detail and every event (pretty much) in Jane's life it couldn't possibly be put all into a film so I liked the way they told the story in the movie.

Plus, Michael Fassbender. Even if he had weird sideburns.

I was telling Jacky that I found him attractive and he was like, '..but he's so manly." HAHAHA

Rating: 8.5/10. Because... Michael Fassbender! and I'm a bit intrigued by Mia Wasikowska.

#stopKONY

Read/watch the FOR and AGAINST first.

FOR: The invisible children KONY 2012 video
AGAINST: The Visible Children article visiblechildren.tumblr.com

Here's what I think in response:
Sure the charity group probably isn't the most transparent of all charities, but that doesn't mean we should go on and stop supporting it altogether.

All advertising aimed to general public requires a lot of money, in the same way in order to make the public aware of this a lot of money has been put in. Of course, it isn't the most ideal situation that a lot of the money is not spent to the cause but we shouldn't stop supporting the ONLY charity trying to make the public aware of the situation.

Supporting an army which itself has been known to rape and kill is probably not ideal. But that is not uncommon for countries such as Uganda, due to its lack of development and lack of education.

As I said, this isn't an ideal situation that we support a charity group that has flaws. But at the same time, we do not live in an ideal world and we are all flawed.

So I say we should support this cause and CAUTIOUSLY support the charity. Because it is better than the alternative, which is doing nothing.

five favourite tv shows // (quiz)

(because I feel like doing one of those long quiz things that no one really reads)

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. (don’t cheat)

1. Chuck
2. Big Bang Theory
3. Community
4. Nikita
5. Modern Family

1. Who is your favorite character in 2? Sheldon Cooper, I also really like Raj and Bernadette

2. Who is your least favourite character in 1? Currently obviously its Decker

3. What is your favorite episode of 4? When the big switcheroo happens, the season one finale :)

4. What is your favorite season of 5? I love both seasons! I'm loving this current season too!

5. Who is your favorite couple in 3? Troy and Abed. (without. a. doubt.)

6. Who is your least favourite couple in 2? Leonard and Priya

7. What is your favorite episode of 1? I don't know, they're all so good. Maybe season 4 finale or season 1 finale

8. What is your least favorite episode of 5? I cannot think of one.

9. What is your favorite season of 2? Season 3 when Leonard and Penny finally got together

10. How long have you watched 1? only for 5 months but I have caught up to the current season

11. How did you become interested in 3? I started watching it after everyone started raving on about the first paintball episode.

12. Who is your favorite actor in 4? Maggie Q (Nikita), she's so pretty!

13. Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? CHUCK!

14. Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3 ? 1 because I've seen all four season plus the current episodes out; whereas there's only two seasons of community plus season three episodes

15. If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? NIKITA! because she's so pretty and kick ass and has the hottest body!

16. How would you kill off your favorite character in 1? What? Why..... would I want to kill off Chuck?

17. Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? No way! Nikita is way to serious and cool for the mixed up people in Community

18. Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple. Unlikely couple: Morgan and Casey

19. Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? Neither have any real storyline, but Community has really witty writing but Modern Family is still hilarious

20. Which has the better theme music, 2 or 4? Big Bang Theory, I can't really remember the theme for Nikita

The Occupy/99% Movement

It irks me that people complain about being in the 99%, when they live in a country with considerable riches, where there are measures to try and make sure the poor don't starve (sure, some people fall through the cracks but the measures are there), furthermore we do tax the wealthy more.

Even more so, some of these people would consider themselves less wealthy just because they cannot afford magnificent houses and cars; poor even. It annoys me because they don't seem to realise how wealthy they actually are. That their problems are when they can't afford new gadgets or things, not because they don't have enough clean water to drink or food to eat.

Furthermore, I feel like these 'Occupy' protests are a bit futile, because even though they are protesting about something, they have no solution. I mean, most protests are like "Free (certain country/people/person)" or "Bring the troops home" etc. and their solution IS the protest. Whereas 'Occupy' (whether it is Wall St, or Melbourne, or Sydney etc.) or 'We are the 99%', these are just statements, not solutions. So, you can continue protesting but nothing is going to happen about this because they don't actually know what to do about it.

By the way, I'm not against the protest, I just think the way that it is going about is rather ineffective.

So my solution to make this protest more effective is: first, work out the solutions to this problem AND then go protest.

But the problem is (and another reason why I believe the protests so far haven't been that effective) this issue is such a hard issue to deal with. How do we ensure the 1% don't control all the wealth? Do we have to spread the wealth? How do you deal with people who genuinely worked hard for their riches amongst some who may have lied/stolen/cheated for their riches? How do you properly spread out the riches evenly so that it isn't a 1% vs the 99%? Do we have to change our system to a socialist one? In that case, don't those who have worked harder deserve more than those that don't work as hard? Plus, many many more questions and issues.
As you can see its a very difficult issue, and not something that can be easily changed with a few protests. Hence, why I believe these protest probably won't be that effective in bringing that much change.

This is also why (because I think the protest is a bit futile), I am a bit annoyed about how people complained about police getting violent because you technically are breaking the law and are not moving when being told. Police don't get violent unless they have to and you aren't doing what they say. People get hurt because they have to be forcibly removed and so they retaliate and hurt themselves, thus coming across as violence.

I mean, it is a protest worthy topic; but it's an extremely hard one to solve. Sort of like trying to solve poverty.

X MEN

So, I tend to have phases, where I obsess about certain things.

Lately, I have been obsessing about X-men.

So I ended up watching every episode from the 90s cartoon, especially because I distinctly remember this one episode from my childhood. The images was so vivid, but it took me forever to find that episode (because it was played in season 5) so I ended up watching all 5 seasons just to find that one episode; plus I do love the cartoon. Reminds me of my childhood, and watching cartoons in the morning.

On top of that, I've been reading into characters wiki pages trying to find their back stories, powers and story lines.

My favourite X men by far are: Beast, Rogue & Jean Grey (and Cyclops when he was with Jean Grey).

I love Jean Grey; plus, I really love this picture of Jean Grey as Phoenix.

I also wish Cyclops and Jean Grey didn't have such a complex relationship and that they could have lived happily ever after (I mean they did, it was for a short while when they were transported into the future to raise up Cable, but didn't last because: 1. Apocalypse's affect on Cyclops' personality, 2. his psychic affair with Emma Frost, 3. she died).

Plus, I wish he isn't currently dating Emma Frost (I dislike her because she used to be bad/evil and I wouldn't trust her and she had a psychic affair with him when Jean was still alive, moreover she seems like she has bad intentions and acts in a calculated way, plus she was in a number of villain groups; sure she's hot, but Jean Grey was better).

I also hope Jean would come back from the dead, since she has the Phoenix Force and because she is one of my favourites.

I also liked Rogue's relationship with Gambit, I felt bad for Rogue when Gambit was turned into one of Apocalypse's Horsemen; that can't be easy for a girl to see her boyfriend be enslaved and turned into Death.

Plus, this is kind of irrelevant, but does Gambit have a never ending supply of cards? Or does he need to continue replenishing his supply? They never really explain that.

& I love Beast, I enjoy that he is not only brawn but he is also brains and seems very peaceful.

Tweet tweet

I've been using my twitter a lot, for random thoughts :) though I do hate the character limit. I usually have to write the whole tweet and then keep refining to reduce character length, which can be quite annoying at times.

Btw, my twitter is: alszhng :)

Also, last Sunday I saw an old man walking a goat in a park in West Footscray :) I thought that was hilarious!

The most racist thing I have ever heard my mum say: when referring to the asian girl in the Maccas i-spy commercial, mum was like, "Oh, so that's why they hired her .. 'I spy with my LITTLE eye.'" LOL!

Alice in Wonderland

So there is such thing as the Alice-in-Wonderland syndrome, which I thought is quite funny.
At first I thought maybe it was a colour/everything is bright thing, but it is a syndrome where you see things as abnormally large or abnormally small, which totally makes sense having seen Alice in Wonderland. Pretty interesting.

So today I wore my black flats and I was wondering why it felt like I could feel the ground while I walked. So I thought my shoes must have been wearing out and an area of the shoe sole was just really thin.

But then I got home and there was an actual hole in the sole, it was like a 1.5cm diameter hole.

Though I'm a bit perplexed as to how it got there, because that hole is really random.

too much tv

so i watched a ton of shows yesterday simply because they all came out yesterday

i watched: survivor, america's next top model, modern family, up all night, free agents

i actually preferred free agents to up all night this week, the ending kinda made it too awkward. i don't like watching things that make me feel too awkward (which is one of the reasons why i stopped watching the office).

i also really enjoyed modern family, but it felt a bit weird how they changed lily. and that lily can talk so much now (and clearly), that it doesn't make sense she's 3. i mean 3 year olds can talk but not that clearly. i actually really enjoyed the silence of old lily, it really contrasted her extravagant parents and her. though i do like this new lily, it will just take some adjusting, that's all.

oh, also watched new girl, the day before that

i kinda like it

as in the episode is kinda slow but funny

but the ending of that episode was hilarious!

i really liked the douchebag jar as well

HAHA.